from time to time, without context or warning, say things like, “today at work I had pull a domino out of a dead man’s penis”. It was this sentiment exactly that led to today’s episode.
This might qualify as our first “live show”. For this episode I travelled deep into the forests of Alabama... to my mother’s house. On her back porch overlooking the Black Warrior river, I spoke with a pair who have worked in one of the most unsettling occupations in existence.
Robert Liston has been misremembered for long enough. On this episode, Rachel Fisher from Hollywood Crime Scene helps us dispel the many myths that surround this famous surgeon.
We'd like to give a huge thanks to our new friend Wild Yam for providing the art for this episode. Check out more of Wild Yam's work on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/_wild.yam_/
The 2nd and final part of our 2 parter on what might be the most painful human death ever recorded.
On September 30th, 1999 a 35 year old man named Hisashi Ouchi was working at the JCO Tokaimura Plant in Tokaimura, Japan. On this day, he’d been asked to forgoe his normal daily responsibilities and assist with a project being conducted at a nearby experimental nuclear reactor. Shortly after work began a coworker screamed, “Run for your lives!”. Ouchi darted from the room and found himself inside a changing area. There, he began vomiting and soon lost consciousness. Over the following months, almost everyone who came into contact with Ouchi would, in their own time, come to wish that he’d never awoken from his collapse. But he did wake up. This was the first of 83 days that would eventually prove themselves to be among the most painful that a human being has ever endured.
Part 2 of our possibly never-ending series on the Yellow Fever outbreak that devastated Philadelphia in 1793.
In 1793 a disease ravaged Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. America's most preeminent doctor at the time also ravaged Philadelphia, Pennsylvania though his contribution to the death and suffering was largely accidental. There is a lot about this page in America's history that mirrors our time's own battle against a spreading plague. One might think that we'd have learned from the mistakes of our racist, bloated with wealth founding fathers. We have not.
In southern France, on the West Bank of the Rhone river, sits the picturesque village of Pont-Saint-Esprit. The village itself looks exactly like what you might expect; Stone buildings with colorful shutters covering their windows sit beneath the clock tower of 15th century church. The village looks sleepy today, it probably is, and it probably has been throughout the majority of its history. In August 1951 though, over 250 residents of Pont-Saint-Esprit unexpectedly started tripping balls. Husbands and wives chased each other with knives, people screamed in terror and ran from flames that did not exist, a mother howled in grief believing that her children had been ground into sausages. By the events conclusion, more than 250 people would suffer from hallucinatory visions, 50 would be institutionalized, and 7 would lose their lives.
On this episode of Where is the Line? we'll speak with a very forthcoming mortician who will educate us on the details of what really happens to our bodies in the intervening time between our deaths and when we're buried or cremated. We'll also learn a few mortician jokes, and we'll hear about some of the most gruesome cases ever worked by "Ramone" the mortician. Additionally amid this episode, Kevin and Samantha will share their plans for their own post-mortem remains.
Where is the Line? 